22 CIlIROrTERA 



[NATTERER'S BAT. 



Vespertilio nattereri Kuld. 



This Bat is recorded as having occurred near Dalkeith, but 

 unfortunately the circumstances are not altogether satisfac- 

 tory. They are as follows : — On 28th September 1880 the 

 late Mr E. Gray wrote to Mr Harvie-Brown in these terms — 

 "I find a new bat to our Scottish lists in some plenty near 'Dsl- 

 'kQiih, Viz., R.\sic\ nattereri." . , . " Aa^^crcH was in dozens 

 in the hole of a tree," statements which were published by 

 Mr Harvie-Brown in the " Proceedings " of the Glasgow 

 Natural History Society (vol. iv., p. 303). It seems strange that 

 Mr Gray, who was always so solicitous for the full and proper 

 recording of rarities, should have let the subject drop here if 

 he was convinced of the correctness of his identification. I 

 have endeavoured to follow the matter up, but with little 

 success. No specimen of Bat from Dalkeith, or of V. nattereri 

 from any locality, can be found in Mr Gray's collections. 

 From Mr Hope, taxidermist, Edinburgh, I learn, however, 

 that in 1880 he had in his shop, besides those brought 

 by Mr Speedy from The Inch, and since referred by Mr Eagle 

 Clarke to V. dauhentoni, some Bats from Dalkeith Park 

 which Mr Gray remarked were of an uncommon kind, and 

 one of which was given to him at his request. On inquiry 

 at Mr Malcolm Dunn, Dalkeith Gardens, he informs me that 

 "in the spring of 1886 a large colony of bats (roughly 

 estimated at about fifty) were discovered one sunny afternoon 

 thickly clustered beneath the ' roan ' and eave, and behind a 

 rain-pipe" in a corner of his house. He mentioned the 

 circumstance to Mr Gray, who expressed the opinion that 

 they would belong to the species known as Natterer's Bat. 

 For two or three years they frequented the same corner, but 



